Portable Shelter Bundle

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Here is an idea for a small kit that could be used to construct shelters in a rural or wooded environment in a bugout situation.  The kit would consist of a roll of chicken wire, a roll of wire, a roll of visqueen, a roll of braided cord, a bundle of metal fence posts, an axe w/hammer, an army shovel, a knife & a folding pruning saw.  I don't have dimensions for any of the materials, but you could figure them out yourself with a bit of research.

In a nutshell, you'd cut saplings with the pruning saw & make usable posts/beams/ridge poles out of them.  You'd use existing trees to build off of, probably wedging/attaching saplings to existing branches and stretching them between two or more trees to create ridge poles, then strengthening those ridge poles with vertically-placed poles or fence posts.  Any poles that touched the ground could be packed into holes &/or placed on stones to add support strength.  Metal fence posts would only need to be pounded into the soil.  Poles could be attached to one another with wire or cord.  Over the frame you constructed you would attach a layer of chicken wire (with wire or cord), which could stretch all the way to the ground (to form walls) if you wanted.  Over the chicken wire you might insert a layer of insulation, such as blankets, sleeping bags, old clothes, etc.  Over that would go a layer of visqueen, & over that would go more saplings to hold the visqueen down, plus layers of dirt & foliage (for further insulation & camouflage).  You could build any size structure you wanted, from a tiny 1-man emergency structure to a large, semi-permanent, multi-room "home".

I've seen visqueen/sapling living structures built in the forest, & the example above is a combination of multiple structures.  I've also had a small amount of experience building such a structure, using only natural materials.  Building shelter using the "kit" materials listed above would be creative, fun & relatively easy.  You could build a very livable structure in less than a single day.  There would be no straight edges or right angles to maintain, nor any nails or precise measurements, & you could free-form the structure into the forest landscape.  It would be fully waterproof, too.  I personally would also build it low to the ground & dig the floor down into the earth, for further insulation & camouflage.

One last thing: The kit supplies listed above would be too heavy to carry, so you'd need a vehicle to haul them.  However, you could design a simpler & lighter kit (of visqueen, cord & a saw) for your BOB if you wanted to.

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